


You just gotta let me try

by Florchis



Series: Do I qualify? [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting together at the Academy, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11173491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Florchis/pseuds/Florchis
Summary: They have done this thing before: playing it cozy with each other to chase away someone unwanted. But this time the game backfires and when Jemma looks at him, she has the non-fleeting desire to kiss him.So she does.





	You just gotta let me try

**Author's Note:**

> From a tumblr prompt: "Hi can you write fitzsimmons getting together in the academy?"
> 
> Title from "I feel it coming".

_I can see it in your eyes, 'cause they never tell me lies._

* * *

It all starts because of Fitz’s hands.

Okay, no, that wouldn’t be fair to the almost three years of friendship and intimacy and confidences they have going, but Fitz’s hands are the catalyst of this reaction that was just on the verge of happening.

Jemma has been waiting for him at the Boiler Room for quite some time now, and she is trying to not be ungrateful, because he is wrapping up a project in the lab and he is only coming to keep her company, not because this is his kind of preferred night out. Key word is _trying,_ because she gets bored quite fast without him or some specimen to analyze, and in this particular case she fails at the ”not being ungrateful” thing because she is too busy trying to calculate approximately how rude would it be considered if she zoomed out and stopped replying altogether to the meathead that is trying to chat her up. 

“Who is this?” There is a pair of hands covering her eyes, and Jemma gasps and immediately smiles. It’s obvious who it is: if the voice alone didn’t give it away, she knows these hands almost as well as her own. She wouldn't call it _a trick_ exactly, but yeah, it’s _kind of_ a trick they have already played a few times: they act too cheeky and maybe even too fresh with each other, until the someone they want to chase away gets uncomfortable or takes the hint and leaves. She can appreciate his ability to read the situation and understand that she wanted to be rescued without even a glance exchange. Sometimes _it is_ like they are physically linked.

“Fitz!” She turns around to look at him, and she is almost leaning over to kiss him until she startlingly realizes that this is not even a sham, this is just something they do for show, and that she is in no way entitled to kiss him.

But the fact is that in a nanosecond that instinct turns into desire, but not a fleeting, almost unnoticeable desire like have happened to her before; no, it’s a longing tug at her stomach and a tingling in her lips, and it’s not going away while she looks into his eyes, so she does it almost in auto-pilot: she leans down and kisses him.  

It takes him by surprise, she can tell- and she can't really blame him-, but he recovers quickly and moves a hand to her jaw to help him respond in kind. The contact of skin on skin makes her gasp. It’s not a deep, steamy kiss, but it makes her breathless all the same, and she can’t stop staring into his eyes when they break apart.

“Jem-Simmons. He is gone.” It takes her two seconds to realize about whom he is talking, because she completely forgot that not two minutes ago this was nothing but a distraction technique. “I-” He stops, exhales sharply, and rubs his neck in his characteristic nervous gesture, and Jemma is so enthralled by the movement of his hand that she almost misses the panic on his face. “That bad? I mean, that, that was a, um, a pretty radical measure, don’t you think?”

"What?” What he is even talking about? She turns her head and sees the beer that her unwanted candidate left behind and she understands. “No, Fitz. Fitz!” She laughs, and people is starting to whisper around them, but Jemma anyway makes fists in Fitz’s lapels and draws him in for another kiss.    

He is frozen for a minute until he whimpers and kisses her back, with a tenderness she wasn’t expecting, his two hands holding her face. Only then Jemma realizes that they haven’t talked about it, they have never even implied that something like this was something on the realm of possibilities. And even though she just had this sort of epiphany, she is certain of what it means. But maybe Fitz isn’t.

“Maybe we should talk, don’t you think?” She whispers against his lips, and he nods emphatically.

“Yeah. Yeah. Probably.”

* * *

She takes his hand and leads him out of the Boiler Room, ignoring the whistling and the catcalling that follow them.   

She expects him to drop her hand once they are outside, but he doesn’t.

The thing is that this is theoretically the moment when she regrets everything; the cold air being like a spat on her face and clearing her mind from the alcohol fumes, etcetera. But she turns around and Fitz is smiling shyly at her, and just because it wasn’t something planned it doesn’t meant that it wasn’t something that has been slowly forming on her mind for a long time.

“Jemma, what’s going on?” His voice is soft and he is doing a great job of putting a facade of keeping the panic under control.

“Oh, I don't know-”

It was obviously the wrong way to start, because his face falls.

“If the guy was being _that_ insistent, you should have told me and I-”

“Your hands.” She cuts him off. She needs to salvage this situation before his insecurities get out of control, and the unadulterated truth is probably the only way to do that. “You put your hands over my eyes and I knew immediately that it was you, and it felt like your skin was made to be over my skin. And then I looked at you and the desire to kiss you didn't go away, so I did. Was it a mistake?”

His eyes are bright when she looks at him, and he is not smiling, but he is not panicking either, and maybe she underestimated him.

“I don't know, was it?”

He makes a step towards her personal space and waits for a couple of seconds, probably waiting to see if she recoils. Jemma doesn’t. He kisses her then, slow and sensual, his arm encircling her waist tight, and Jemma feels like her entire body is being turned into warm water, and his arm is the only thing keeping her together.

This, _them,_ feels like something that has been brewing between them even since they met, and needed only the right thing done in the right moment so things could just… happen as they should happen. It feels like something written on the stars.

God, _three kisses_ and he has already turned her into a sap.

“I don’t think it was a mistake. Do you?”

Fitz doesn’t answer, but he strokes the shape of her cheekbone with his thumb with such tenderness that Jemma doesn’t feel that she needs one. She takes his hand between hers and kisses the pad of each one of his fingers. His breath hitches.

“I have always admired your hands, work-wise. How strong they are, how delicate they can be. Nimble, precise, creative. Tender, if needed. I didn’t realize until now that I was thinking all that about your hands, yes, but mostly I was thinking it about you.”

He groans, and Jemma is grateful for the way he drags her closer, because she doesn’t want him to see her trembling.    

“Jemma, you need to stop.”

“Or else?” She is grateful for her voice sounding more confident than she feels.

Fitz leans over her ear, and his breath makes goosebumps run all over her neck.

“Or else you will _force_ me to show you what _else_ my hands can do, _not_ work-wise.”

She adores her shy, fumbling Fitz, but she also adores when he is proud of his work and sure of himself. She can get used to Fitz acting more confident around her; for all they joke about how competitive they are with each other, they are all about helping the other thrive.

Her voice is still trembling, but it is because of anticipation and not fear anymore.

“Will believe it when I see it.”

He laughs and draws her into another kiss, and like that, tightly entwined, eyes half-open, not going too long without a kiss, they make their way back to Fitz’s room.   


End file.
